Practice

Practice, practice, practice!  It is hard to believe the summer is almost over.  One more week before school starts and 3 weeks before the first show.  The pigs are doing well.  The weather has cooperated this summer and the heat has not been so hot.  Pigs and heat often equal stress.  In the pictures above I am weighing pigs again.  This time of the year, I weigh them about every week.  The State Fair is still 9 weeks away and I need to make sure my pigs will be the right weight for the fair.  The weight limit is 280, so that is the maximum your pigs can weigh.  The other pictures show me working with my pigs. Using the whip and walking with the pigs so they know what to expect and where to go,  is a large part of showmanship.  Working with them often is the key to a successful relationship with your animal.  I think I know which of my 2 pigs I will choose for my showmanship pig, but we still have a lot of work to do.

 

Its time to start weighing my pigs to make sure we will be right with our weights come State Fair time.  Sorry to say, they are a little heavy.  Part of this project is knowing how much your animals are gaining each day and the correct balance of feed for them to reach that correct show weight.  These pictures are of me and my show pigs.  My first show is going to be Saturday, September 7 in Edgecombe county.  I am looking forward to it, but I know I have a lot of work to do. The 2 larger pigs are my show pigs and the smaller is Frances- we bottle fed her from birth.  She was the only pig her mother farrowed.  Mom had complications and could not look after her, so we became her mom.  She is small, but is in good health and a new friend to the show pigs.

Livestock Judging

Last week was a very busy week!  It began Monday with a practice at the Beef unit at NCSU for the State 4H Livestock judging contest coming up on Tuesday.  I had a good practice and felt ready for the contest.  After practice I traveled with the Johnston county livestock judging team to tour the Vet School at NCSU.  It was AMAZING!  We are very fortunate to have such a great facility right here in North Carolina.

Tuesday was the contest- This is the first time in 3 years I have been able to participate.  I was a little nervous, but excited to get to compete.  The contest consisted of 4 classes of cattle, 2 pigs, 2 sheep and 2 goats.  Senior competitors gave 3 sets of reasons.  I did pretty well, placing 7th in reasons and 5th in swine.  I placed in the top 15 seniors at the contest.  As a result, I will have an opportunity to work out for the State 4H livestock judging team.  I am  excited!

Livestock judging is a great addition to my livestock showing.  Being able to select superior animals will always help you perform better in the show ring.

Here is the link to the Livestock judging contest photos from Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.395956940525793.1073741830.191921984262624&type=1

Pigs

I have been showing pigs for 5 years and really enjoyed it.  This year with the help of my dad, we decided to buy some gilts and try to raise our own show pigs.  We purchased 2 gilts at the NC State Fair and another from the Wilson County Show and Sale.  The girls we purchased at the fair, farrowed in March and April.  I sold 3 of the pigs and kept 2 for myself to show at the State Fair.  We had hoped for more pigs, but we had complications farrowing our second gilt.  We have bred again for local area Show and Sales coming up this spring. When it came around for heat checks to make sure they all were pregnant I saw that one had aborted and was on a odd heat cycle. As a result of this, we were forced to breed her to the herd boar. She will farrow around the end of October while the other will farrow at the beginning. We will try and get pictures of the girls up by the middle of the week.

Montana

Sorry I am slow at getting my blog started.  I was in MONTANA last week!  I was fortunate enough to  attend the 2013 National Junior Red Angus Round up in Montana.  I traveled with 10 other North Carolinians to the event.   This was my first time flying and it was pretty good! I learned a lot about Red Angus cattle and was able to meet many new people and see the beautiful state of Montana.  I will upload pictures soon.  I am interested in both cattle and pigs, so I will be updating you on my participation in both areas.

A little about Sam!

A short Bio about Sam:



 I was pretty much born into it. My mother and aunt both show cattle growing up and my  father was raised on a hog farm so it was one of the things that was expected. My sister also showed before me and set out a pretty good path for me to follow. I just enjoyed it enough to take it to the next level and raise my own pigs.


Sam's favorite thing about showing livestock:


 Being able to travel and meet new people across the state and country.


Sam's biggest accomplishments showing livestock: 

I have many accomplishments showing. I have won Grand Champion Showman for both cattle and swine at the NC Junior Beef Roundup (Intermediate division) and NC State Fair (intermediate division)respectively- I have been Reserve Champion Heifer Showman in the East Carolina Showmanship circuit 2 times.  I was 5th in the senior division of the new East Carolina Swine showmanship circuit this past year.  I have won showmanship several times at our Wilson county show.  I have won several breed championships with the Red Angus breed at the Western Carolina Spring Fling, NC State Fair and NC Junior Beef Roundup